1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for automating the production of sales catalogs, e.g., grocery sales catalogs; and in particular, to the assigning of unique catalog numbers for particular items that are to be included in the sales catalogs.
2. Discussion of Background and Other Information
Traditionally, it has been customary for individuals to visit a store to purchase items, such as groceries. In particular, it is customary for an individual to personally visit the local supermarket or butcher to purchase all the household food supplies and consumables that are needed. However, over time, a .significant proportion of households have become two-income families, in which both spouses work. This has resulted in the need to perform essential household chores, such as grocery shopping, during one's non-working (or, "free") time. However, many individuals do not want to go grocery shopping after spending a day at the office, and are relegated to shopping on the weekends. Accordingly, a need has developed to reduce the drudgery of shopping for home items.
Another situation exists with respect to the aged and infirm. Modern medicine has enabled people to live longer lives. However, while people are living longer, they are not necessarily able to perform the same tasks that they could do when they were younger. For instance, an elderly individual may not be able to lift several bags of groceries. Alternatively, a person may be restricted to using a wheelchair or walker, thus preventing that person from carrying several bags of groceries. Accordingly, a need has arisen to develop a system that allows them to go about purchasing a plurality of goods without physically having to purchase such items.
In an attempt to help the above individuals, the assignee of the present invention previously established procedures whereby individuals can call a central order taking facility. The order is then forwarded to a store in the geographic location that serves the customer (and, which typically is part of a chain, such as, for example, Safeway in the Washington, D.C. area), the order items are selected by a store employee and packed so that the items can be either picked up or delivered to the individual's home.
To assist the customer in placing an order, a catalog of items is produced for each served geographic location and/or each chain participating in the system. To produce an accurate catalog, each store has been required to generate an inventory list of every item that is carried by the store. Thereafter, the items must be classified (e.g., meat or diary product) and listed in an easy to refer to catalog. In addition, it has been necessary to assign an item number to each product to facilitate the order process.
However, as the ordering system developed and was expanded to include additional geographic locations and retail outlets/chains, it became more difficult to produce catalogs for each geographic region while ensuring that every different product is assigned only one unique item number. For instance, different stores in different geographic regions may sell many similar type products. For example, grocery stores in New York and Washington, D.C. may sell the same brands of a product, such as cream cheese manufactured by Temp Tee, Breakstone, etc. However, a store in another geographic region, such as, for example, Chicago, may not sell Temp Tee or Breakstone cream cheese, but instead sell other products that are unique to that area, such as, for example, Lady Lee cream cheese. Thus, it is important to assign each different product, e.g., each different size and/or manufacturer, a different product code number.
Another problem that arose is that each manufacturer normally packages its products in many different sizes, such as, 2 ounces, 4 ounces, 8 ounces, etc. However, many stores do not carry each product in every manufactured product size. For instance, a store in New York may offer Temp Tee cream cheese in the 4 ounce and 16 ounce sizes, while a store in the Washington, D.C. area may offer the same product in only the 4 ounce and 8 ounce sizes; and each such sized-product requires a different catalog number.
Accordingly, the assignees of the present invention attempted to device a system for assigning catalog numbers to each product listed in a catalog for a particular region by using the Universal Product Council numbers (UPC numbers) that are assigned to each product. In fact, various features of such a system are fully disclosed in commonly assigned, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/578,626 filed on Sep. 7, 1990 and entitled "Centralized Order Taking System", the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein. However, it was quickly discovered that the UPC numbers were not consistent for a given product, varying from region to region. Accordingly, the assignee of the present invention attempted to match descriptions between a new catalog and a master catalog in order to determine whether a product had been previously coded, and thereby minimize the number of new product numbers being assigned. This approach resulted in inaccuracies and a large number of repetitive entries because of the different manner in which many products would be listed. For example, in certain instances the brand name of the product would not be listed first. In other cases, the brand name of the product would not be listed at all, because the product is self defining, such as, for example, Cheerios for cereal. Other inaccuracies would result from the rounding of sizes, such as, for example, stating that 8.5 ounces is equivalent to 9 ounces. Accordingly, a new system for easily and accurately cataloging a large number of products, and assigning a unique catalog number to each unique product, was required.
Another major problem which arose, however, related to the capacity of the catalog-generating system, which was only capable of generating and assigning 99,999 product numbers. Unfortunately, because of the noted differences in e.g., product descriptions and UPC numbers, several catalog product numbers were often assigned to the same product, thereby unnecessarily utilizing catalog numbers and severely reducing the capacity of the system. Accordingly, it was necessary to develop a catalog-producing system and apparatus which would maximize the chance of a product-to-catalog number "match", and minimize the number of catalog numbers used. In this way, the system would be capable of accommodating many more products for a given system capacity, and closely approach, if not attain, a system wide one number per product goal.